-> ''"You may kill me. [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning But my death, it's only to set off a spark that is going to bring out a miracle and save us all.]]"'' \²'''--Twilight Sparkle'''²²As ''[[FanFic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic Starfleet Magic]]'' has a sizable {{hatedom}}, {{deconstruction}}s and {{reconstruction}}s were inevitable. This is [[FanFic/StarfleetRedone one]] [[Fanfic/StarfleetMagicIsBelieving of]] [[FanFic/MyBravePonyStarfleetNemesis four]].²²An enemy that's smarter and more ruthless than anyone the Unicornicopians and Equestrians have ever fought rises. With the former blindly believing that they will triumph as always and the latter worried that sticking to obsolete tactics will ruin them all, what's to become of United Equestria?²²The story is written by Creator/{{Legendbringer}}. There is a cut version on [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11169596/1/Mykan-tribute-Fall-of-Starleet-rise-of-Harmony Fanfiction.net]] and an uncut version on [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/249531/fall-of-starfleet-rebirth-of-friendship FIMfiction]]. Additionally, there are one-shots focused on [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12174194/1/To-my-dearest-friend Pinkie]] [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/348590/fall-of-starfleet-to-my-dearest-friend Pie]], [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/358559/fall-of-starfleet-hearths-warming-days Hearth's Warming Eve]], [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12563971/1/Fall-of-Starfleet-Birth-of-an-Apple Apple]][[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/378899/fall-of-starfleet-birth-of-an-apple jack]], and [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/402056/fall-of-starfleet-side-story-a-tarnished-diamond Rarity]]. There is also a spinoff ([[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12395766/1/Fall-of-Starfleet-Side-Story-Evolution-of-Friendship here]] and [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/366584/fall-of-starfleet-side-story-evolution-of-friendship there]]) that takes place in the ''WesternAnimation/EquestriaGirls'' universe and crosses over with ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', ''Franchise/TheDCU'', ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' and [[Tropers/Jyger85 J.A.Phillips']] fanfic ''Fanfic/PowerRangersGuardiansOfGaia''. An AU written by Alchemystudent called ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/381802/fall-of-stafleet-shooting-stars Fall of Starfleet: Shooting Stars]]'' has [[Franchise/{{Metroid}} Samus Aran]] crash-landing on United Equestria.²²----²!!This story provides examples of:²²[[foldercontrol]]²²[[folder:A-M]]²* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Starfleet. The Equestrians hate them [[FantasticRacism for fairly justified reasons]], other races don't want to deal with them for the same reasons, and other Unicornicopians think they're a bunch of morons that prance around playing soldier. The realization that no one really likes them is a big contributor to several members threatening to quit, and ultimately [[spoiler:ends up breaking Lightning once all of his colleagues have either died or abandoned him, leaving him utterly alone.]]²* ActorAllusion: Human!Applejack notes that Sunset sounds like Twilight singing.²* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: Twilight's death is shown to have much more of an impact on her friends and family, [[BreakTheCutie Pinkie Pie in particular]].²** Ace Ray's brainwashing [[RealityEnsues is seen as horrific as it actually is by the Equestrian cast]]. [[spoiler:Although the effects are later undone.]]²*** [[spoiler:Ace's little sister Skye also shows deep regret for saying that Ace Ray is just like the villains Starfleet faces. Ace also shows regret about hurting Skye. When the two meet after the fight against Dark Conquest's army in Fillydelphia, they are trying to out-apologize the other.]]²** [[spoiler:Raven was made into the BloodKnight she is now (and given her hatred of Celestia) through manipulation of her memories courtesy of Dr. Emil Kudos and Grand Ruler.]]²* AdaptationalBadass: Ace Ray in ''Starfleet Magic'' was just shown be a slob before Starfleet tampered with his mind. Here, after recovering from said tampering, he (along with others) goes to Fillydelphia to aid the Elements of Harmony against Dark Conquest's army, and he can easily keep up with the others, showing just why he became a Wonderbolt in the first place.²* AdaptationalVillainy: Subverted. Starfleet is generally the same as in the original fic...they're simply stripped of their ProtagonistCenteredMorality and their actions are viewed as horrifically as they actually are. It is, however, played straight with a handful of characters, namely Rhymey and Grand Ruler, although that's mainly due to bringing the horrific implications of their characterization in ''Starfleet Magic'' to the forefront.²* AdaptationalWimp: Also subverted. Starfleet is the same as in the original fic, they're just shown to be as incompetent as they actually are and pitted against enemies that know what they're doing. See the entries detailing Starfleet's lack of effectiveness in DeconstructionFic for more details.²* AdultFear: Ditzy's husband is deceased and Starfleet's child services deem her unfit to care for her daughter, Dinky.²%%* AerithAndBob:²* AllThereInTheManual: {{Creator/Legendbringer}} goes over Meadowbrook's Eight Items in [[https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/784736/meadowbrook-the-eight-items this blog post]]. Note that not all of them appear in the story.²* AnArmAndALeg:²** [[spoiler:Applejack's wings are ripped off by a boar commander. Luckily, according to Dash, "she hated having those wings anyway."]]²** [[spoiler:Pinkie reveals that she donated her wings to somepony in more need of them than her.]]²** [[spoiler:In the true fight against Thunder Cloud AKA Esroh Dab, Rarity tore off her own wings in order to free herself when she was pinned to the wall.]]²* ApocalypseHow: The fairy world suffers at ''least'' a Class 3a (probably closer to Class 6 or even Class X) at the hands of the Necromancer, with Krysta being [[SoleSurvivor the only]] [[LastOfHisKind known survivor]]. [[spoiler:A few chapters later, the ponies learn that the fairies have been turned into zombies.]]²* AprilFoolsDay: Chapter 9 is essentially [[StylisticSuck a parody of Dakari-King Mykan's clich&eacute;d stories and writing style]], fittingly uploaded on April 1st.²* ArmorPiercingSlap: Celesto deals one to Lightning when he tries to report that Equestrians saved a number of Unicornicopians.²** Dementia gives one to Lightning too [[spoiler:[[MamaBear for being a terrible husband to her daughter]]]].²* ArtisticLicenseChemistry: In "The Fall Begins", Rarity creates a barrier out of cloth and gems, stating that it would take an Alicorn to break through since it's made out of diamonds. In reality, it's nearly impossible to scratch a diamond but it's quite easy to break one into itty-bitty shards with, say, a hammer. Hardness is not the same as durability. But then again, [[AWizardDidIt magic]].²* AuthorAppeal: Legendbringer is a huge fan of ''Franchise/TheFlash'' and so the story contains numerous references (i.e Max Mercury and the Speed Force are name-dropped) to the characters and mythologies.²** In "Fare thee well, Fiery star", Cheerilee is reading a book called [[Recap/DigimonAdventureMovieOurWarGame "Our War Game"]]. The author considers it one of his favorite ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' movies.²** [[Machinima/RedVsBlue The Reds and Blues']] appearance in the story is due to the fact that the author enjoys the web series.²* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: Unlike in Starfleet Magic, this trope is played straight with a vengeance. Dark Conquest, in addition to being in command of his forces also shows himself to be the top asskicker amongst them [[spoiler:[[CurbStompBattle as Lightning Dawn found out the hard way in Chapter 3.]]]]²** This also extends to commanders of his army's sub-units as well. In Chapter 5, [[spoiler:a commander of a boar unit is able to heavily injure Applejack, even going so far as to rip off her wings. Applejack ultimately triumphs over her foe in the end, though.]]²*** Also in the same chapter, Dementia, Mysterious and Rep-Stallion [[spoiler:manage to knock Lightning Dawn and his team unconscious with little effort on their part.]]²* AwfulWeddedLife: By Luna's count, Celestia and Celesto have reached thirty arguments in one month at the beginning of the story. Fluttershy's marriage to Rhymey isn't coming along very well either, with Rhymey being quite domineering and overly possessive. The rewrite also gives this treatment to Starla's marriage to Lightning, as she's not happy at all about Lightning basically [[StayInTheKitchen keeping her in the kitchen]] while he does Starfleet stuff and barely spares any time to spend with her.²* BackFromTheDead:²** Titan, his minions, Fratello and Raven are alive again thanks to some benefactor of Conquest's. Discord too though it's currently unknown as to how he came back. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Titan and Discord simply never died in the first place]].²** [[spoiler:As of The Return of the Light: Twilight Sparkle has been brought back to life as well. At the cost of [[SacrificialLamb Belle and Spark.]]]]²** [[spoiler:The [[WorldHealingWave Harmonic Wave]] that restores Equestria to its former glory also brings back those killed in the war against Conquest.]]²* BadassArmy: Dark Conquest's army, made up of minotaurs, boars, griffons, changelings, ponies [[spoiler:and even some Unicornicopians]], many of whom have a bone to pick with Starfleet and Grand Ruler.²** After [[spoiler:the Elements' first victory in Fillydelphia]], United Equestria gets one of their own.²* BareHandedBladeBlock: Rainbow Dash pulls this on Rhymey's sword, and then breaks it with her bare hands. However, it's partially deconstructed as she cuts her hands open in the process. Gilda also does that in a later chapter with the same results.²* BigBadEnsemble: While Dark Conquest is attacking United Equestria, it becomes apparent that ultimately the Grand Ruler is little better than he is and is just a power hungry tyrant who's more concerned about retaining his power and sense of superiority [[spoiler:than the fact his side just won their first actual victory of the war, just because it was the Equestrians and not Starfleet.]]²* BigBadassBattleSequence: Once United Equestria gets their act together, the battles become a lot larger in scale. ²* BigDamnHeroes:²** [[spoiler:Gilda]] arrives in the fifth chapter just in time to save Rainbow.²** Madilyn morphs into the Violet Gaia Ranger to save Sunset from Darkonda in Chapter 1 of ''[=EoF=]''.²** Applejack shows up just in time to get Conquest's attention just before he turns his attention to the Golden Oaks Library and Belle. Conquest [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this relentlessly.²** Applejack subsequently gets one-upped by [[spoiler:Twilight coming BackFromTheDead to save the Mane Five and [[BlownAcrossTheRoom blasting Conquest halfway across the Everfree Forest]]]].²* BlackAndGrayMorality: On the one side, we have a [[FantasticRacism xenophobic]], fascist police state led by a dictator that has exactly zero tolerance for dissent among its subjects, around half of which would like to be left alone but were dragged into the conflict. On the other side, a world-destroying, puppy-kicking EvilOverlord backed by an unknown dark power and an army with a bone to pick with said police state. Eventually slips into BlackAndWhiteMorality, as Grand Ruler is portrayed as evil with the unambiguously good Equestrians struggling against both him and Conquest.²* BluffTheImposter: [[spoiler:How Rarity proves that Esroh Dab is lying about who he is and is actually from the future: she mentions Canterlot Carousel before the building actually existed.]]²* BrainwashedAndCrazy: Aside from the established case of [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul Fratello]], [[spoiler:most of Starfleet have been subjected to this by Grand Ruler]]. By contrast, most of the other named antagonists are not being mind-controlled in any way; at least one Mook had the glowing red eyes signifying being brainwashed in the first attack against Equestrian holdings, and one of the named antagonists is hinted at having her memories altered.²* BreakThemByTalking: Fluttershy's talk to Dementia about how she must have a heart because she has feelings and doesn't want to hurt children is more effective than any physical blow she or anypony else could have landed.²* CainAndAbel: The relationship between Cadance and Fratello, with Fratello serving as the Cain to Cadance's Abel. [[spoiler:Though, at the moment this seems to have been dealt with, with Cadance absorbing Fratello's hatred in order to free him from the armor.]] ²* CallingYourAttacks: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in this story. As noted by Raven in Chapter 8 in her fight against Dyno and Myte, saying your attacks actually gives the opponent ample opportunity to counter them while stating that it's smarter to try and say them after putting some distance between yourself and the enemy.²** Comes up once again in Chapter 11, when Artie tries calling an attack against the enemy and ends up getting floored before he gets to finish. Applejack tells him to drop it, after which he holds his own much more effectively. Artie slips back into this for one occasion in Chapter 13, although it's against an enemy that's not attacking him at the time.²* CannotSpitItOut: Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash obviously have feelings for each other, but neither is willing to make the first move. [[spoiler:Gilda]] even calls Dash out on it.²* CanonCharacterAllAlong:²** Early in the story it is revealed that [[LivingStatue Goldwin]] is actually [[TheTrickster Discord]] in disguise. Late in the story, it is revealed that [[PaletteSwap Distraught]] was also Discord all along.²** [[spoiler:Beast Boy, one of the Unicornicopians brought in to replace members of Lightning's team, is revealed to be Thorax about half a chapter after his introduction.]]²** [[spoiler:The Dark King and his followers (Giant, Demon, Ogre, Alien, and Bad Horse) are [[CerebusRetcon retconned]] into being the BadFuture [[FallenHero counterparts]] to Shining Armor, Big [=MacIntosh=], Pound Cake, Zephyr Breeze, Sweetie Belle, and Soarin, respectively.]]²** [[spoiler:{{Inverted|Trope}} with [[TerribleTrio Dementia, Mysterious, Rep-Stallion]] who are revealed to be entirely new characters Galaxia Shine, Blackened Myst, and Swift Blade before becoming Titan's minions.]]²** [[spoiler:Also {{inverted|Trope}} with [[BigBad Lord Titan]] who is revealed to be King Titan, the father of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.]]²** [[spoiler:[[RuleOfThree Also inverted]] with Celesto and Celestia's children Castor and Leilani, who are revealed to be Celestia and Discord's son (yes, [[SelfDuplication singular]]).]]²** [[spoiler:Shining Spark retains Twilight Sparkle's identity and is not just a fragment thereof.]]²** [[spoiler:The Necromancer is revealed to be the classic My Little Pony Tales villain Grogar.]]²* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: The only reason Celesto's still alive. Celestia has made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that she'd have incinerated him a long time ago if it weren't for the treaty that resulted in the formation of United Equestria and the fact that Celesto still has the support of the Unicornicopian population, meaning that having him killed would result in civil war - and even that ''might'' be worth it if it weren't for Dark Conquest. Which kind of sucks, given that [[TheMillstone he's more of a hindrance to the war effort than a help]].²* TheCavalry: In chapter 11, [[spoiler:a de-brainwashed Ace Ray shows up with a number of ex-Wonderbolts (who resigned in protest of what happened to him) along with Gilda and a number of griffon warriors to back up the Elements in Fillydelphia. Then, half of the city's population joins the fight, managing to push back Dark Conquest's army.]]²* CentralTheme: According to WordOfGod, ''Fall of Starfleet, Rebirth of Friendship'' is about fighting to remain true to one's ideals.²** ''Evolution of Friendship'' is about fighting for one's identity.²* CerebusRetcon: [[CerebusRetcon/FallOfStarfleetRebirthOfFriendship Has its own page.]]²* CharacterDevelopment: Unlike in their source material, the Mykan-original characters actually have personalities. As noted by the author [=LegendBringer=], this was done so that you could actually feel something about the characters, unlike in Starfleet Magic.²** While he hasn't said anything to her yet, it's quite noticeable that Caramel has feelings for Applejack.²** Dyno gets a fair bit of development, particularly a scene with Applejack where he confides that he and his brother would rather live safe, ordinary lives doing what they love. [[spoiler:This is specifically so that Myte's death is meaningful and the readers actually can feel Dyno's anguish, as according to the author, "What is worse than a bad death? A death that no one cares about."]]²* CharacterRerailment: This is actually an InUniverse example as a plot point. [[spoiler:Grand Ruler has been directly interfering with the minds of the canon characters, eroding their personalities and causing them to make decisions that they otherwise wouldn't, as well as planting false memories that they took as being true. However, his power has gradually been weakening, allowing them to come to their senses.]]²* ChekhovsGun: Early on in the story, Rarity uses a golem to fight alongside her friends during her pregnancy without actually putting herself in danger, but this point is dropped when the golem starts becoming sentient. [[spoiler:It comes back in chapter 18, where Lightning uses one to pull a ThanatosGambit without actually dying, and since the golem was freshly made, sentience never becomes an issue.]]²* ChristmasEpisode: The prequel "Hearth's Warming Days", which centers on Applejack, Rarity and Buddy trying to celebrate the holidays.²* CloningBlues: Discussed but averted with Glarity. Even though she's given Rarity's personality and memories, and was only created as a stand-in for Rarity, the others consider her a person in her own right as well as a dear friend, and encourage her to seek independence and personality traits of her own.²* ClusterFBomb: Alluded to. When news of Starfleet throwing countless innocent ponies into prison comes to light, Vinyl Scratch remarks on her radio broadcast that while Grand Ruler declined to comment, he probably had a few choice comments in private - "all four letter words and all probably had to do with how [their] mothers don't know who [their] daddies are".²** Rarity drops one for real when [[ScreamingBirth giving birth]], hurling obscenities at just about everypony present and Spike.²* ContinuityCameo: Several characters from [=FiM=] canon make token appearances in this fic in relatively minor roles.²** Lightning Dust and Gilda show up at the fight in Phillydelphia.²** Starlight Glimmer appears as a lackey of Starfleet.²** Tempest Shadow is hired by Shining Spark to fight alongside her friends. The Storm King himself later appears [[EnemyMine to form an alliance with Equestria]].²* CouldSayItBut: Why no, Celestia [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial isn't telling]] Discord to help Luna start a revolution to overthrow the Grand Ruler and put her back in charge, but if he just happens to take the idea a bit too seriously...²* CrapsaccharineWorld: United Equestria, on a very superficial level. While it may appear to be a stable and prospering country, it's more or less shown that it's a fascist military state ruled by an ineffective, militaristic, xenophobic tyrant. Said tyrant sends others to prison planets [[DisproportionateRetribution simply for disagreeing with him]], cuts the education budget in favor of the military budget while at the same time feeding propaganda to young children to have no other desire for the future than to join Starfleet, has re-education centers and "correctional facilities" run in order to deal with the country's "undesirables", actively enforces the racist notion that Unicornicopian citizens are superior to Equestrians and other races, [[spoiler:actively censors news about rogue Unicornicopians and {{Mind Rape}}s his citizens by giving them false memories about past events.]]²* CreatorCameo:²** [[spoiler:Bonnie Zacherle, the creator of ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'', and Creator/LaurenFaust, the creator of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', appear as goddesses before Twilight Sparkle in a flashback about her death.]]²** Legendbringer's own AuthorAvatar makes a short, [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth-wall-breaking]] cameo.²* CrisisCrossover: ''Evolution of Friendship'' is a crossover between the ''WesternAnimation/EquestriaGirls'' universe, ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', ''Franchise/TheDCU'', ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' and [[Tropers/Jyger85 J.A.Phillips']] fanfic ''Fanfic/PowerRangersGuardiansOfGaia''.²* CurbStompBattle:²** [[spoiler:Lightning Dawn is subjected to a brutal one by Dark Conquest in Chapter 3 with Lightning unable to get in a single hit and left needing medical treatment.]]²** Dementia, Mysterious and Rep-Stallion showcase this in Chapter 5. When [[spoiler:engaged in battle against Lightning Dawn's team, they actually have backup soldiers help them, which leads to Lightning and his group being put out of commission not too long after arriving in Vanhoover.]]²** In the very first chapter of "Evolution of Friendship", [[Series/PowerRangersInSpace Darkonda]] lays the smackdown on the human counterparts of Starfleet without effort. Human!Applejack returns the favor and gives Darkonda heck when she gets her new Ranger powers.²* DareToBeBadass: An Equestrian named Flame Tongue gives one of these to his fellow Phillydelphia citizens, questioning why they're hiding when they could be out there fighting the good fight.²* DarkerAndEdgier: Than both ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' and ''[[FanFic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic Starfleet Magic]]''.²* DeconstructionCrossover: ''Evolution of Friendship'' crosses over the ''WesternAnimation/EquestriaGirls'' universe, ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', ''Franchise/TheDCU'', and ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' and deconstructs Mykan's fanfics in these respective works.²* DeconstructionFic: [[DeconstructionFic/FallOfStarfleetRebirthOfFriendship Has its own page.]]²* DeconReconSwitch: ²** Right there in the title. While it's mainly a straight up deconstruction of the original, there's reconstruction of [=FiM=] after the original series' mutilation of it. For instance, instead of being useless, ThePowerOfLove is the first thing to get a big victory over Dark Conquest.²** ThePowerOfFriendship is also reconstructed as the Elements of Harmony's status as TrueCompanions is why they have an easier time getting through current events as opposed to Starfleet, as well as just making the Elements much more competent than Starfleet. [[spoiler:It's also the first thing to physically harm Dark Conquest.]]²** [[SuperHeroOrigin The origin story of the Mane Six]] is given this treatment in ''Fall of Starfleet Side Story: Evolution of Friendship''. The [=HuMane=] Six [[RealityEnsues do not have the luxury of knowing what their talents are like their Equestrian counterparts and their world is much less forgiving than Equestria]]. However, like their Equestrian counterparts, the Equestria Girls are working towards what they want in life in a similar vein to the Mane Six.²* DeconstructorFleet: Deconstructs practically everything people hated so much about ''[[FanFic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic Starfleet Magic]]''. Which, given all of the entries in DeconstructionFic, is ''a lot''.²* DefectorFromDecadence: [[spoiler:Several Unicornicopians have actually defected from Starfleet upon realizing how horrible Starfleet actually is. Unfortunately, some of them have joined Dark Conquest's army.]]²** As of Chapter 8, [[spoiler:Dyno has quit Starfleet upon the death of his brother Myte by Raven's hands but not before giving his teammates an [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech epic dressing down.]]]]²* DiabolusExMachina: In chapter 11: [[spoiler:the day is saved, Dark Conquest's forces have been beaten back for the first time in the war, all members of Starfleet are safe and accounted for... [[HopeSpot Cue Conquest and Raven showing up and killing Buddy Rose]].]]²* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Artie [[TakingTheBullet takes a magical blast for Pinkie]] in Manhattan and seems to die in her arms, but then turns up to save her again just a short time later.]] The author originally intended to have [[spoiler:Artie]] KilledOffForReal, but had a change of heart down the line; the original death scene was put in the story unchanged, but the aftermath was altered.²* DissonantSerenity:²** Played for maximum laughs with Fluttershy, who's the only pony to remain calm and oversee the delivery process while Rarity is screaming bloody murder while giving birth, Pinkie is panicking, and Rainbow and Applejack are [[AmusingInjuries getting their hands destroyed]] by Rarity's bone-crushing grip.²** Twilight remains unnaturally calm while Raven is ''beating her to death'' by repeating her friends' names to herself, [[spoiler:giving her the focus needed to break the magic seal triggered by Lightning and cast her last-ditch soul-splitting spell that creates Belle.]]²* DividedWeFall: The MasterRace philosophy preached by the Unicornicopians unsurprisingly only serves to destabilize United Equestria, with Unicornicopians using this as an excuse to bully and belittle the Equestrian population and fostering dissent. Grand Ruler insists on having Starfleet stand alone without help from United Equestria's neighbors or their own Equestrian population, while Starfleet itself is having issues as none of their members know each other well enough to care about each other on a personal level and at least half of them want to call it quits, greatly hampering their already-limited effectiveness. Naturally, this leads to Conquest's army wiping the floor with them until the Element bearers step in to pick up the slack, and it's only when United Equestria finally stands ''united'' that things get much better.²* DoubleMeaningTitle: ''Fall of Starfleet, Rebirth of Friendship'' can refer to:²** The end of the Space Ponies ruling over Equestria and the Equestrians rebuilding.²** Creator/{{Legendbringer}} [[DeconReconSwitch tearing Starfleet apart while also repairing FiM.]]²* DreamingOfThingsToCome: What begins the fic.²* DumbassHasAPoint:²** Celestia has to admit that Grand Ruler, questionable as his decisions may be, is right that she can't afford to send the Elements on what may be a wild goose chase investigating the Equestrian magic drain, which could just be a freak disease outbreak, when millions of lives are at stake in Detrot (especially since they're the main reason that Starfleet hasn't gotten themselves killed yet). Fortunately, Luna offers to send her crew to investigate Detrot, freeing up the Elements.²** When Celestia learns that Celesto [[spoiler:used an illusion of her in order to tell Lightning it was Twilight's fault she died]], she verbally and physically assaults him. She threatens to incinerate him but Grand Ruler reminds her that, due to the treaty, doing so would incite riots and civil war, something she can't afford at the moment when they're already embroiled in war.²* EarAche: Fluttershy pulls on Rainbow Dash's ear after [[spoiler:her fight with Rhymey.]]²* EarnYourHappyEnding: The ending is much happier than the rest of the fic, almost to the point of being out of place, but the cast definitely went through more than enough to deserve it.²* EarthAllAlong: [[spoiler:Dark Conquest reveals that Equestria was never destroyed; Grand Ruler destroyed Unicornicopia and moved the entire population to Equestria and renamed it "United Equestria". The Elements of Harmony realize that this is why United Equestria uses location names from Equestria but never any from Unicornicopia.]]²* EasilyForgiven: Starlight Glimmer gets off shockingly easy given that [[spoiler:she ''voluntarily'' helped Starfleet re-educate undesirables, which involves [[MindRape force-feeding of Starfleet propaganda]] and [[BodyHorror physical restructuring]].]]²* EatenAlive: [[spoiler:Terra at the mouths of hundreds of undead fairies.]]²* EvenEvilHasStandards: Basically every named villain (Dementia, Rep-Stallion and Conquest's benefactor, specifically) save for Dark Conquest [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil finds rape objectionable]]. Dementia and Mysterious also draw the line at [[WouldntHurtAChild harming children]].²** Though it's hard to tell how much he actually means it, Conquest admits that it would be dickish to attack Starfleet while they're mourning the loss of one of their own. [[DownplayedTrope So he decides to hold a celebration instead.]]²** Dark Conquest, Raven, and Titan do not condone tampering with another's memories. Other forms of MindRape, however, are fair game for Conquest. A particular case is Raven threatening to kill Rhymey on the spot when she shows up to deliver him an ultimatum from Dark Conquest, apropos of him {{mind rap|e}}ing Fluttershy.²* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Rainbow and Fluttershy's mutual attraction is abundantly clear to everyone around them, even if they're not willing to admit it outright.²* EvilGloating: Conquest loves to do this.²* EvilerThanThou: Dark Conquest actually inverts this trope during his [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech reason you and Starfleet suck speech]] to Starla Shine. Conquest states that for all the evil he commits, it doesn't hold a candle to Starfleet's actions. In his words, he tells her "you are bigger bastards than I could ever be." He later zig-zags the trope by asking the population of Equestria whether he's more evil than Grand Ruler [[spoiler:while exposing all of Grand Ruler's lies]], before also telling them that he benefits no matter who they hate more.²** Played straight in Conquest's ranks. Raven notes that Mysterious, Rep-Stallion, and Dementia have not taken a single life between them and have an unfortunate history of [[PetTheDog dog-petting]], and questions whether they actually have the stomach to kill - while rubbing in the fact that she killed Twilight Sparkle.²* EvilVersusEvil: Unlike the original story, the Grand Leader is treated as the racist tyrant his actions would actually make him (heck, Conquest thinks Starfleet is WORSE than him). As a result, him and Starfleet versus Dark Conquest basically amounts to this.²* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: The second part of the title makes it rather obvious what it's going to be about.²* ExcitedTitleTwoPartEpisodeName: The chapter titles for ''Fall of Starfleet Side Story: Evolution of Friendship'' use this.²* FaceDeathWithDignity: Averted in [[spoiler:Myte's]] case. [[FamousLastWords His last words]] are him pleading with Raven not to kill him. Right before [[NeckSnap doing the deed]], Raven calls him out on it, noting that her previous victim Twilight Sparkle showed more dignity than him. Averted even harder with [[spoiler:Rhymey]], who immediately starts pleading for his life to Raven when she shows up. Naturally, she's not impressed, and claims that even ''[[spoiler:Myte]]'' took it better than him on account of actually putting up a fight first.²* FailedASpotCheck: Rhymey takes Fluttershy to meet his family and proceeds to pay absolutely no attention to her. She promptly sneaks out the window, flies off to Cloudsdale, and spends the whole evening having dinner with Rainbow Dash and her family [[spoiler:and Gilda]], including a romantic night flight. When she finally returns to the ground, neither Rhymey nor his parents have noticed her absence at all. This also serves to illustrate exactly how much Rhymey actually cares about Fluttershy (read: not at all).²* FakeMemories: This fic posits that all of ''Starfleet Magic'' is composed of falsified accounts of the real deal, planted in the minds of everypony by Grand Ruler. In addition, the memory machines used by Unicornicopian judges are prone to just making up new memories from whole cloth to make the recipient look guilty.²* FixFic: Simply put, it's a FixFic [[RecursiveFanfiction fixing the "fixes" made by another]] FixFic. Try saying ''that'' five times fast.²* ForegoneConclusion: Sunset will inevitably return to Equestria and leave the human world as ''Evolution of Friendship'' begins with her saying this.²* {{Foreshadowing}}: ²** [[spoiler:In chapter 13, Rarity notes that Thunder CloudEsroh Dab talks about the Wonderbolts in a way that indicates he lost a loved one who had served on the team. [[FamousLastWords His final words before he dies are "...Spitfire, I'm sorry..."]]. In chapter 11, Soarin is introduced holding Spitfire's hand in an implied romantic gesture. In chapter 16, it is confirmed that Bad Horse is the BadFuture [[FallenHero counterpart]] of Soarin.]]²** [[spoiler:The author left numerous hints that [[LukeIAmYourFather Dementia is]] [[RelatedInTheAdaptation Starla's mother:]]]]²*** [[spoiler:[[FriendToAllChildren She was kind to kids.]]]]²*** [[spoiler:[[PetTheDog Her attention to Starla was more motherly.]]]]²*** [[spoiler:Her lullaby was from Jem's mother.]]²*** [[spoiler:She owned a copy of "Literature/MrsFrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH", a book all about a mother saving her kids.]]²*** [[spoiler:Her room was set up to house a girl.]]²*** [[spoiler:She listened and was supportive of her daughter's dreams.]]²** Twilight's quote at the top of the page [[spoiler:subtly foreshadows that she is, in fact, Shining Spark, [[MeaningfulName explaining where she got the name]].]]²** Several of Shining Spark's scenes suggest very early on that [[spoiler:she's actually Twilight]]:²*** She's highly reluctant to face [[spoiler:the Element bearers]], saying that "it's not time yet".²*** When she does talk about friends in her past, it's always with very vague terms, indicating that she wants to hide their identities.²*** She mentions an odd pain when looking at the Elements/Knights.²*** She seems oddly familiar with the Princesses' abandoned castle, although Spark dismisses it as having been there on research trips.²** A couple of hints that [[spoiler:Grey Son is actually Nightwing]].²*** [[spoiler:Grey Son --> Grayson --> Dick Grayson. This is even {{lampshade|Hanging}}d by Donna Troy.]]²*** [[spoiler:His introduction has Sunset and Madilyn [[FemaleGaze draw attention to his butt]]. Quite fitting as Nightwing's rear end has reached such {{memetic|Mutation}} levels that characters even acknowledge it InUniverse.]]²*** [[spoiler:When reprimanding Starfleet for using their powers during a school exercise, he doesn't seem all that threatened by their supernatural abilities. Of course he isn't, he deals with this sort of thing on a regular basis.]]²* FusionDance: [[spoiler:Shining Spark and Belle Amie merge to properly revive Twilight Sparkle.]]²* GodsHandsAreTied: Princesses Celestia and Luna are tied down by Grand Ruler's oppressive political power and therefore unable to directly take action against either him or Conquest, forcing them to rely on the Element bearers and the Umbra Circle to do the work. [[spoiler:Once Grand Ruler gets put out to pasture, they get right into the action.]] Discord is similarly powerless to undo the changes Grand Ruler wrought [[spoiler:with the Orb of Reality]].²* GodzillaThreshold: [[spoiler:Due to their friendships with Belle and Spark respectively, Pinkie and Trixie agree to keep their true natures a secret in hopes of finding [[TakeAThirdOption an option to get Twilight back that doesn't involve destroying one or the other]], only resorting to the fusion if all else fails or if the situation becomes too dire as Spark, being a creature of logic, would undertake the fusion without a second thought if notified. Failing that, they at least want to give the two a choice as to how they want to live out their last days. Conquest targeting Ponyville forces Trixie's hand, and she tells Spark about Belle so that she can become whole and save her friends before Conquest smears them across the ground.]]²* GondorCallsForAid: After being de-brainwashed, Fratello is sent to secure the aid of the yaks, and [[spoiler:Cadance and Shining Armor forge an alliance with [[EnemyMine the changelings]]. They show up in time to fight back against an army attacking the Crystal Empire under the command of Sombra]].²* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex: Celestia and [[spoiler:Discord]] have a crazy but entirely joyful sex life, and it's fairly obvious it's one of the few bright spots in her life, with Celesto keeping her from running her kingdom properly.²** Conversely, Rhymey is established to be a terrible lover, completely unable to actually pleasure Fluttershy or even understand the idea of sex as something besides procreation.²** Taken to its extreme with Rarity and Spike, who utterly wreck the Carousel Boutique with a five-hour session so intense that her friends feel it. While they're in the Crystal Empire. It's even felt by Tirek in his cell in Tartarus, as well as Dark Conquest, who's so impressed that he has to give a thumbs-up.²* GroinAttack:²** Applejack dishes out quite a few low blows in her fights.²** Apparently, that's where rapists in prison are branded.²** One weapon in Pinkie's kit is essentially a bat called "Pinkie's Little Nutcracker". Three guesses what she uses it for.²** Human!Rhymey's testicles are punched, grabbed and squeezed by [[Series/PowerRangersInSpace Darkonda]].²** The assassin sent after Pinkie by Grand Ruler gets whacked between the legs after their fight.²** [[spoiler:Titan]] winds up on the receiving end of one from Pinkie.²** During her ScreamingBirth, Rarity at one point threatens to castrate Spike for impregnating her. [[TheComicallySerious Fluttershy agrees to tell him, completely nonplussed by the events.]]²* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:When fighting against Lightning Dawn in Chapter 8, a Unicornicopian states his reason for joining Dark Conquest to be this upon realizing how Starfleet is actually far from being the heroes they claim to be, also noting that with him he knows which side he's fighting for now.]]²** Starla is crushed when she realizes that she actually had to stop and recall who [[spoiler:Myte]] was before she could mourn him.²* HeyYouHaymaker: Sunset Shimmer and Dai Shi actually exchange a few words between her tapping his shoulder and her attempting to punch him.²* HonorBeforeReason: Starfleet insists that United Equestria can defeat the enemy alone even after several crushing defeats, refusing aid from others.²* HumblePie: Thanks to Trixie saving him and his kid brother, a Unicornicopian named Mainak Crush realizes that he shouldn't assume Equestrians are weak and stupid.²** Lightning Dawn gets force-fed just about an entire bakery's worth throughout the story, but it eventually sticks after 14 chapters.²* HypotheticalCasting: Creator/{{Legendbringer}} has made a [[https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/787045/voice-acting-blog blog]] detailing what voice actors he would choose for which Starfleet character and comparing them to Creator/DakariKingMykan’s choice of casting.²* ICantFeelMyLegs: As a result of being teleported onto a faraway prison planet, Raindrops is unable to feel her wings for a few moments.²* IdenticalStranger: Belle Amie is mistaken for Twilight Sparkle several times in the story. [[spoiler:As detailed in LiteralSplitPersonality below, there's a good reason for that.]]²* IdenticalTwinIDTag: Coco, one of Sunset Shimmer's [=YukimiBotamon=]/Nyaromon partners, is given a black bow to wear on her ear from Fluttershy.²* IdiotBall: Despite being aware that [[spoiler:their memories of former events have been modified and all of said events coming after Starfleet's arrival]], neither the princesses nor the Elements make the connection, despite it being made almost blindingly obvious that [[spoiler:Grand Ruler is the culprit. Of course, that might be a result of Grand Ruler's power.]]²* IfICantHaveYou: Red Herring's best friend was jealous of his marriage so he killed his wife and framed him for it.²* ImportantHaircut: In ''Evolution of Friendship'' Chapter 2, Sci-Twi cuts her hair shorter to better differentiate herself from her Equestrian counterpart.²* INeedAFreakingDrink: PlayedForDrama when Trixie resorts to hitting the bottle after [[spoiler:telling Spark that Belle is her missing half, knowing that it would be the last time she sees the pony she knows as Shining Spark.]] The aftermath gets PlayedForLaughs when she shows up to [[spoiler:greet the newly reborn Twilight]] completely wasted.²* InelegantBlubbering: Plenty to go around when [[spoiler:Twilight returns]], starting with Applejack and followed by the rest of the Mane Five.²* InstantBirthJustAddWater: Rarity's water breaks in the middle of Sugarcube Corner. Cue the MassOhCrap and [[HilarityEnsues the emergency birthing in the middle of the bakery]].²* InterspeciesRomance:²** [[spoiler:Rarity and Spike consummate their love.]]²** There's also [[spoiler:Celestia and Discord. Luna is understandably squicked out when she comes across a dream of Celestia's involving her and Discord consummating their relationship.]]²** A crystal pony and a Unicornicopian are in love and about to be married when Fratello strikes.²** Gilda and Ace Ray, likely also a RescueRomance given the circumstances. Naturally, Skye and Rainbow Dash tease them for it (relentlessly in the latter's case, although Gilda returns fire by bringing up Rainbow and Fluttershy).²* KickTheSonOfABitch: Raven has standing orders to eliminate the members of Starfleet one by one and greatly revels in her task, but even so, it's hard not to side with her when she shows up to kill Rhymey given that he's a selfish, abusive psychopath in the first place.²* KnightOfCerebus: Gone are the predictable, clich&eacute;d actions of the villains from Starfleet Magic. In this story, Dark Conquest is aware exactly how Starfleet operates and showcases ways in dealing with them, making him a much more credible threat.²** When choosing to make his presence known to United Equestria, instead of sending one monster to attack a town like his predecessors, Dark Conquest leads a battalion of his troops into Neigh Orleans while at the same time having Dementia destroy the shields and cut off the town's method of alerting Starfleet.²*** Conquest also shows his awareness on how typical, clich&eacute;d hero stories go, as demonstrated in his fight with Lightning Dawn in Chapter 3. He lists off how the hero challenges the villain early in the story [[YouCantThwartStageOne only to end up bruised, beaten and utterly broken]] as he beats the ever-living shit out of Lightning Dawn. The only reason Lightning Dawn survives is due to the fact that Conquest [[ThePowerOfHate wants to feed off his hatred more.]]²*** When tasked with launching another attack in Chapter 5, it appears that he's just singling out Vanhoover. Then it turns out by the end of the chapter Vanhoover was one of two targets, the other being Horn Kong. While Starfleet was busy trying to save Vanhoover, Conquest took the rest of his forces and finished the attack on Horn Kong he started hours earlier.²** Conquest's underlings are also no slouches, and are much darker and more dangerous than the ones from ''Starfleet Magic''. Raven is a ruthless killer tasked with destroying Starfleet (and ''succeeding'' in picking them off), the Necromancer is a being of mass destruction that revels in destroying entire races, and Doctor [[spoiler:Emil Kudos]] is a shameless Earth Pony supremacist who's basically [[ANaziByAnyOtherName a pony Josef Mengele]].²* LaResistance: The Umbra Circle, a small group of ponies loyal to the princesses ([[MyFriendsAndZoidberg and Discord]]) organized by Princess Luna to undermine Grand Ruler's regime from within through subterfuge. As the war drags on, they also show up to provide assistance to the Elements when they need it, particularly when they get on Celesto's bad side.²* LaserGuidedKarma: After years of FantasticRacism from Starfleet and Grand Ruler Celesto, many of the citizens of United Equestria who had fallen victim to this treatment have joined Dark Conquest's army in order to exact vengeance. And as shown in recent chapters, they are succeeding in doing so.²* LeaningOnTheFourthWall:²** Dark Conquest throws so many [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] around, it's practically this.²** Anytime a character criticizes Starfleet, it sounds an awful lot like criticisms aimed at the original story.²*** On a similar note, anytime someone calls out characters like Rhymey and Grand Ruler for their horrendous actions, it sounds similar to what people have said to Mykan for his thoughts and actions.²* LiteralSplitPersonality: Heavily implied with [[spoiler:Twilight Sparkle after her death, with the two parts becoming Belle Amie and Shining Spark/Bright Spark]]. Confirmed in Chapter 17.²* ALizardNamedLiz: In Chapter 5, one of Fluttershy's animals friends is a basilisk named Basil.²* LogicalWeakness:²** Conquest, being powered by hate, is vulnerable to love, friendship, and happiness. [[spoiler:The first time he gets driven off, it's by Pinkie's [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS2E18AFriendInDeed "Smile" song]] of all things.]]²** Boars are nearly unstoppable while charging, but first they need to get up to speed. The Diamond Dogs rout them by simply filling the ground between them with holes, halting their charge and leaving them as easy pickings.²* LoveRedeems: [[spoiler:Literally, in the case of Fratello. Cadance sucks all the hate out of him and draws it into herself where her love can imprison and destroy it, allowing Fratello to regain his sanity and break free.]] The author has stated that Cadance's Power of Love is grossly underrated, both in MLP canon and in ''My Little Unicorn''.²* TheLudovicoTechnique: [[spoiler:Used by Starfleet's re-education camps to brainwash ponies into perfect soldiers, and as with the original version of ''Starfleet Magic'' season 3, implicitly used to break Ace's mind.]]²* MagicMusic: Lyra uses a lyre to attack Dark Conquest's army. In the caverns below Canterlot, ghosts called Preta sung to drain the Mane Five when they investigated the magic drainage.²* MaliciousMisnaming: Any time Grand Ruler is brought up by somepony that's not fond of him (which encompasses most of the main cast), they'll replace the "Ruler" part of his title with some sort of insult. Impressively, he rarely, if ever, gets insulted with the same word twice.²* MalignedMixedMarriage: When a Unicornicopian and a Crystal Pony were wed, they became shunned by the former's kind.²* MarkOfShame: Criminals are branded on certain parts of their body depending on their crime.²* MilitariesAreUseless: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed.]] As Titan points out, the lower grunts of Starfleet are made to lose, so that Lightning Dawn and his team would look like heroes. This has made it next to impossible for the Unicornicopians to win against Dark Conquest, as well as why so many people lose their lives in each battle.²* AMillionIsAStatistic: Starfleet's attitude towards civilian casualties, as demonstrated by Lightning and Abra.²* MindRape: You know how everyone in ''Starfleet Magic'' tended to be horribly OOC? [[spoiler:Grand Ruler had a hand in that. He's also done the same thing to modify his people's memories of certain events to make Starfleet look better; for instance, the fight between the Elements and the TerribleTrio was a CurbStompBattle in the elements' favor that was won before Starfleet even showed up.]]²** Something similar appears to be happening in the ''Equestria Girls'' universe.²* MisappliedPhlebotinum: Equestrians are forbidden from using magic (at least unicorn magic) for mundane purposes and have to reserve it for healing and fighting only, by Grand Ruler's decree. Suffice to say, plenty of ponies are ''not'' happy about this.²* MiscarriageOfJustice: Thanks to Starfleet's policy of not having trials if there is [[OrgyOfEvidence "more than enough proof"]], lacking a parole system and thinking that memories are unerringly accurate unless modified by detectable magic, thus making their memory scanners infallible (assuming that said scanners aren't actively modifying memories or just [[KangarooCourt projecting fake ones]]), there are hundreds of thousands of innocents in jail. [[spoiler:Fortunately, by the end of the twelfth chapter, the travesties have been brought to light and real trials are underway.]]²* MonsterOfTheWeek: In ''Evolution of Friendship'', the Rainbooms deal with various monsters sent by Unos; unlike the ones in ''Starfleet Magic'', Unos's monsters [[SmallRoleBigImpact all leave some sort of lasting impact]]. {{Iron|y}}ically enough, the monsters of the week are comprised of AlternateUniverse versions of ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' {{Big Bad}}s.²* MorningSickness: The first sign of Rarity's pregnancy.²* MundaneUtility: After learning a [[SelfDuplication shadow clone spell]], Twilight uses it to study at several times her usual speed.²* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: A number of Unicornicopians have turned against Grand Ruler's regime and joined the ranks of Dark Conquest. Needless to say, Grand Ruler is [[OrwellianEditor none too]] [[PropagandaMachine pleased]] when he finds out.²** In Chapter 7, a Unicornicopian being attacked by [[spoiler:Fratello]] is revealed to be engaged to a crystal pony.²[[/folder]]²[[folder:N-Z]]²* NeverTheSelvesShallMeet: [[spoiler:By sheer coincidence, Shining Spark and Belle Amie are ''never'' in the same place at the same time. The only time they meet is when their time is almost up and Spark learns that Belle is her literal other half, at which point Spark seeks Belle out to merge with her.]]²* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Thanks to Starfleet's tendency to send anyone for crimes such as [[DisproportionateRetribution thinking Celesto is wrong to far-off prison planets]] and not doing thorough investigations which results in many innocent ponies being sent to jail, Dark Conquest has a huge army who's all too willing to follow him if it means killing Unicornicopians.²%%* NotTheIntendedUse:²* NothingIsScarier: Details aren't given about what exactly happens in Starfleet's reeducation camps, just that it isn't pleasant. Ditto for their policy of having the physically disabled "fixed". It's finally revealed in chapter 16, and suffice it to say, [[MindRape it]] [[AndIMustScream isn't]] [[BodyHorror pretty]].²* NotWhatItLooksLike: Used both for comedy and drama.²** The comedic version occurs when Rainbow finds a naked Pinkie cuddling with Artie in their sleep, and Pinkie assures her that they really ''are'' just embracing and nothing more.²** The dramatic version happens when Conquest tells Dementia to check on Starla after he violated her in what's implied to be a particularly brutal fashion after the battle at Manehattan, telling Dementia that Starla might be about to do something drastic. Dementia rushes to Starla's cell to find her raising a shard of glass to her neck... and [[ImportantHaircut cutting her hair short]].²* OhAndXDies: The titles of the chapters in which [[spoiler:Myte and Buddy]] kick the bucket all but spell out who's about to die. Subverted with [[spoiler:Artie]], although it was a close call.²* OnceAnEpisode: Each chapter in the story beings with a quote from Mykan, which the chapter will then proceed to viciously deconstruct.²* OnceMoreWithClarity:²** Chapter 12 shows what really happened when [[TerribleTrio Rep-Stallion, Mysterious and Dimentia]] arrived in Equestria. [[spoiler:The Elements of Harmony [[CurbStompBattle soundly defeated Rep-Stallion, Mysterious and Dimentia]] before Starfleet even arrived. The trio were actually going to surrender when Starfleet finally arrived, resulting in them being murdered in cold blood by Starfleet.]]²** Chapter 13 shows that [[spoiler:Rarity was not at all deceived by Esroh Dab's act (also Esroh was much more competent at being a spy) and quickly figured out that he was lying. Her being angry at Spike was just her [[InvokedTrope invoking]] BreakHisHeartToSaveHim to protect him from Esroh Dab.]]²** Chapter 17 shows how Twilight actually died against Raven.²* OneSteveLimit: {{Averted|Trope}}. In addition to Raven the assassin, Celestia also has a personal scribe named Raven.²* OutOfTheFryingPan: "Kindness! My only path" has [[spoiler:Fluttershy help [[BrokenBird Alternate!Kimberly]] find peace and dump Rhymey's abusive ass. The chapter ends with Rainbow Dash alerting Sunset Shimmer that Fluttershy has been arrested.]]²* OverprotectiveDad: Actually, Overprotective Uncle, although Rarity was left in his care a lot. As shown in the ChristmasEpisode, Rarity's Uncle Esteem, a knight, does approve of and is grateful to Spike for protecting her with his life but warns him that betraying her trust will result in him being turned into a shield.²* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: As the Umbra Circle discovers during their missions, Grand Ruler can't come up with a secure password to save his life. All of his passwords are either phrases related to how much he hates friendship, or some permutation of "12345"; one has to wonder [[Film/{{Spaceballs}} whether he has the same combination on his luggage]].²* PatchworkKids: [[spoiler:Rarity and Spike's child is a kirin.]]²* PercussiveTherapy: Lightning Dawn nearly turns himself into a bloody mess (and a punching bag into a pile of dust) when imagining words of condemnation from his teammates.²* PetTheDog: Dementia tries to kill Starla in her sleep to prove to herself that Fluttershy was wrong about her having a heart. However, not only is she unable to go through with it, she instead tucks Starla in and gives her an AffectionateGestureToTheHead. Later, Dementia comforts Starla after breaking the news of Myte's demise to her and admits that she has come to care for Starla after all. It eventually [[ParentalSubstitute goes a bit further than that]].²* PlanningForTheFutureBeforeTheEnd: [[spoiler:After learning that [[YourDaysAreNumbered she's due to fade away in around a month]], Belle makes a list of things that she wants to do and experience after that, just in case her friends find a way to extend her lifespan. It never happens as Belle is ultimately absorbed back into Twilight.]]²* ThePowerOfHate: Dark Conquest actively states to Starla that he is drawn to worlds full of hatred and notes that United Equestria is dripping in it all thanks to Starfleet and Grand Ruler's FantasticRacism and that such hatred is what he feeds on. It's for this reason that, [[spoiler:after beating Lightning Dawn to a bloody pulp, he lets him stay alive due to Lightning's hatred for him being that delicious.]]²* ThePowerOfLove: [[spoiler:Cadance manages to use this to restore her brother Fratello's mind and return him to his old self, and again later to end Sombra's siege of the Crystal Empire.]]²* PropagandaMachine: The Grand Ruler maintains that the Elements of Harmony failed to work on Titan's minions when, in actuality, they did but the Equestrians had to surrender when a spirit threatened their loves ones. Even Starla Shine didn't know the truth. Later on, he covers up the news of [[spoiler:Unicornicopians defecting to the enemy side]] and Starfleet being saved by Equestrians - all in the name of leaving Starfleet's reputation untarnished.²* ProphecyTwist: The DreamingOfThingsToCome segment in the beginning states "Weakness will cause darkness to extinguish the five lights"; coupled with the fact that Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy are the ones having the dream, things don't look good for the Mane Five. [[spoiler:However, the story later reveals an addendum: "But if [[AmnesiacHero heart]] and [[EmotionlessGirl mind]] can unite, then the darkness will be pushed back."]]²* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: One of the biggest differences between this fic and the source material is averting this trope with regards to Starfleet, which makes a massive difference in how they're seen and portrayed.²* PsychicAssistedSuicide: Imperious uses an emotional spell in the third chapter of the sidestory to make nearly all the students at Canterlot High depressed enough to attempt suicide. [[spoiler:He is defeated but not before several people die, including Dyno and Myte]].²* PsychicBlockDefense: [[spoiler:The Elements of Harmony provide their bearers with protection against Grand Ruler's MindRape, forcing him to remove the Elements from the equation by burying the Tree of Harmony so that he can modify their memories. This is why they at least remember a fight with Titan when the Unicornicopians came, as opposed to just 24 hours of nothing.]]²* PunchCatch:²** When Celestia rubs it in Celesto's face that their first victory in the war was mostly an Equestrian effort, he tries to punch her, only for her to use just one finger to stop it.²** An intruder in Raindrops' house (who turns out to be Luna) catches said occupant's punch with her fist in a flashback in Chapter 15.²* RaceLift: The human characters in the ''WesternAnimation/EquestriaGirls'' universe are given more realistic skin tones, doing away with the AmazingTechnicolorPopulation akin to ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}''.²* RageQuit: Perhaps the best way to describe [[spoiler:Dyno's reaction to Starfleet brushing off the death of his brother - dropping an angry TheReasonYouSuck speech on them and declaring his resignation then and there]]. Of course, this falls under the category of "righteous anger" rather than plain rage.²** A number of the Wonderbolts' reaction to Ace Ray's brainwashing, once they hear about it.²** Grand Ruler pulls the biggest one in the story when [[spoiler:he gets discredited on national television, threatening to wipe out all of Equestria and start over.]]²* RealityEnsues: Given that Mykan has stated that he wanted to give the Equestrians a dose of reality in his fic, the following bits of irony are delicious.²** With no ProtagonistCenteredMorality, Starfleet and their actions are considered as horrifying as they actually are. Additionally, their [[FantasticRacism tendencies to look down on "inferior" races]] does not bode well with anyone, not even their own people.²** Starfleet not holding trials if they have "more than enough proof" leads to countless innocents being thrown in jail.²** The Equestrians are predictably shocked at having their anatomies suddenly changed without their knowledge. ²** [[spoiler:One of the mercenaries sent after the Elements of Harmony, Ragamuffin, has dead nerve endings. She [[FeelNoPain cannot feel pain]] and while this seems like it gives her the edge over Applejack and Raindrops, this also means that she does not notice her Achilles tendons have been sliced until she finds out she cannot walk.]]²** With Starfleet's low taxes and currently being in a war, they are running out of money to finance said war and everything else in United Equestria.²** To replace the lost members of Lightning's squad, Grand Ruler gives him command of [[RedShirt a bunch of newbies straight out of training]] and throws them into a fight immediately. As they have no combat experience, don't know how to work together as a team, came out of Starfleet's questionable training regime, and have a commander whose mental health isn't in the best shape at the time, they all die messily in short order. [[spoiler:The only survivor earned that status by virtue of being a Changeling with knowledge of how to use his powers well in a fight.]]²** [[spoiler:Esroh Dab was easily spotted due to his obvious lack of knowledge of the world around him. Granted, he's presented in this story as a much more competent spy, but he still made a number of mistakes that Rarity picked up on.]]²** Sunset points out to Human!Artie that there is nothing between them that can lead to a long-lasting relationship, so they break up; however, they do remain friends.²** Unicornicopians being told they are superior to Equestrians leads to the latter being bullied by many of the former.²** Starfleet always uses the exact same strategy for every battle and can only deal with one kind of enemy effectively. Naturally, Conquest notes all of their weaknesses and exploits them to no end.²** In Chapter 3 of ''Evolution of Friendship'', the new Phys Ed teacher, Grey Son calls out Starfleet for using their powers on an obstacle course and makes them run laps without using their powers.²** [[spoiler:While boarding Serpentari, The Umbra Circle [[MuggedForDisguise mugs a group of Starfleet soldiers for their uniforms]]. However, the uniforms they acquire do not fit them and they have to repeat this method a few times before everyone gets a uniform that fits them.]]²* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Lots of them.²** Dark Conquest delivers one in the second chapter to the captive Starla Shine, noting that Starfleet and Grand Ruler's treatment of their own citizens [[NiceJobBreakingItHero has allowed him to amass such a large army]] while also pointing out just how evil they are as a whole despite their claims of being heroes.²** Trixie (or, to be precise, a shadow clone of her) gives an epic one to Abra in the third chapter by pointing out [[spoiler:after seeing her hometown of Neigh Orleans on fire]] how the Unicornicopians make claims of being superior in every way despite truly doing nothing to prove it while also calling him out on being an utter joke of a magician magic-wise right before [[spoiler:quitting her job as his assistant and going into the town to find, help and save any survivors.]]²** Dementia, Mysterious and Rep-Stallion verbally [[spoiler:and physically]] tear a new one into Lightning, Rhymey, Artie, Buddy, Dyno and Mite in the fifth chapter, berating them for calling out their attacks, only doing well when the odds are in their favor in battle and not truly being united as a team and caring for one another, [[spoiler:all the while kicking their asses.]]²** [[spoiler:Dyno delivers a big one to his team following the death of his twin brother Myte in Chapter 8, berating each and every one of them for their flaws: Artie and Buddy for being nothing more than support to Lightning Dawn, Rhymey for his controlling nature and lack of rhyming ability and Lightning for being a terrible team leader and friend who's unable to save anybody despite wielding great power and also calling him out on not being able to truly understand another's sadness, bringing up Lightning's destroyed home planet as an example. In addition, he points out how their fool-hearted belief in Grand Ruler's gospel has truly done nothing for them or his brother, right before quitting Starfleet.]]²** Celestia drops one on Grand Ruler during the celebration of [[spoiler:the Elements' victory in Fillydelphia]], pointing out that the Equestrians have proven themselves to not be inferior to the Unicornicopians as Grand Ruler believes and that the Elements have just done more to save the day in this one feat than Starfleet has the entire war, while also tearing into his inability to comprehend friendship in general.²** Titan of all people gets to call out Grand Ruler's anti-friendship policies, claiming that all he's doing is weakening himself. He doesn't address anyone in particular with it, but it still qualifies in spirit.²** Fluttershy gets to slam Rhymey with a particularly epic one about how he's a selfish bastard who doesn't understand the concept of love, and therefore will never be loved himself. It breaks his will to the point where he ''runs away'' from her.²** Titan gives Lightning Dawn not so much a "Reason You Suck" Speech but more a "Reason Grand Ruler and Starfleet Suck" Speech in Chapter 17, pointing out how the grunts of Starfleet are just nameless faces that nobody cares about and how Grand Ruler Celesto has set up Lightning Dawn's team to be the ultimate heroes at their expense and then goes on to say that because of this, [[spoiler:his victory at Neighpon is assured.]]²** Twilight gives one to Dark Conquest, saying that for all his power and atrocities, he is nothing more but a childish tyrant who is basically addicted to hate, but needs to get the same rush as he did before. Though he insults the Grand Ruler for being predictable, in the end, he is the same. Thus, he will always lose.²* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Grey Son acknowledges that different people must learn at their own speed and allows Fluttershy to not run a certain course and lets her work at her own pace. Conversely, he calls out the Starfleet crew for basically using their powers to cheat in an obstacle course, and makes them run laps as punishment.²* RecursiveFanfiction: A deconstruction of "Starfleet Magic".²* RedShirt: Three random Unicornicopians are brought in to replace the losses on Lightning's squad. You can just about guess how long they last in an actual battle. [[spoiler:Well, the two that aren't changelings, anyway.]]²* RefugeInAudacity: Given that Celesto has been known to have ponies thrown in jail for merely speaking against him, Vinyl Scratch doing the same thing ''on radio'' definitely qualifies as this.²* RequiredSecondaryPowers:²** As is a common Required Secondary Power with many speedsters, Rainbow Dash possesses a much more efficient metabolism to get the energy needed for her SuperSpeed. This also means that she [[NeverGetsDrunk cannot get drunk (or at least has a very difficult time trying to get drunk)]].²** [[spoiler:Ragamuffin has dead nerve endings which is why she [[FeelNoPain cannot feel pain from her injuries]]. This also means that she cannot feel when parts of her body have been rendered useless when they have sustained too much damage. She does not notice that her Achilles tendons have been sliced until she discovers that she cannot walk.]]²** [[spoiler:As explained by Thorax,]] Changelings change everything in their bodies when they transform, including: molecular density, vitals, blood type, bone structure, organs, and even DNA. The only things they cannot replicate are memories and magical aura. [[spoiler:This explains how Thorax was able to mimic the abilities of animals and not just their appearances, such as using a gorilla's brute strength, in his Beast Boy disguise.]]²* ReverseCerebusSyndrome: The story gets more lighthearted over time as the Equestrians' situation becomes much less hopeless, Grand Ruler loses power, and victories are scored over Dark Conquest. While the first few chapters are flat-out depressing, the later chapters tend to have much more comic relief and some slice-of-life friendship moments.²* ReversePsychology: [[spoiler:In Chapter 21, Celestia tells Discord they should marry each other to lift ponies' spirits but he adamantly tells her that marriage is out of the question. When Celestia then tries to make a decree that Draconequii cannot marry Alicorns for any reason, he becomes angered by her trying to command him and sets up a wedding right on the spot.]]²* RightThroughTheWall: To keep his lovemaking with Celestia from being heard, Discord transfers all the sound elsewhere... into Luna's bedroom!²* RobbingTheDead: Rarity has Pinkie Pie gather up as many gems as possible, even those on dead ponies, in order to create a barrier.²* RougeAnglesOfSatin: Several unfortunately, such as referring to Unicornicopians as Unicornians and to Lightning as Lighting. However, errors like these haven't appeared much as the story has gone on.²* RousingSpeech: An Equestrian named Flame Tongue gives one to a bunch of civilians, saying they should be out there fighting the good fight instead of hiding like Grand Ruler dictates. He manages to get many ponies, including at least one Unicornicopian, to join the fray.²* ScreamingBirth:²** In "Fall of Starfleet: Birth of an Apple", Buttercup shrieks and cusses everypony present, including the soon-to-be-born Applejack.²** Ditto for [[spoiler:Rarity]] when she has [[spoiler:Crystal Clarity]].²* ScrewYouElves: The bulk of Dark Conquest's forces are composed of former prisoners that want nothing more than to take the Unicornicopians' claims of superiority and violently shove it up their collective posteriors - and are more than capable of doing so, given how ineffectual Starfleet is. The Unicornicopians even get this treatment from their own Equestrian allies, who have very understandable grievances with them and prove to be far more competent than Starfleet would like to believe.²* ShareTheMalePain: An innocent prisoner crosses his legs when he thinks about where rapists are branded.²* ShootTheMessenger: A non-fatal (at least not directly) example: When Grand Ruler receives word that [[spoiler:Unicornicopians have joined the enemy's side]], he orders the messenger thrown in a camp.²* ShoutOut: [[ShoutOut/FallOfStarfleetRebirthOfFriendship Has its own page.]]²* ShowerOfAngst: Starla has one after being raped by Dark Conquest in "Fall of Starfleet: Shooting Stars".²* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Despite the overall DarkerAndEdgier tone, the story leans heavily towards the "Idealism" side with heavy emphasis on ThePowerOfFriendship and redemption.²* SmallRoleBigImpact: Darkonda only appears in the first chapter of ''[=EoF=]'' before being destroyed, but during that time he takes away both the Equestria Girls' and Starfleet Humans' Ranger powers and opens the road for the Equestria Girls to get new Ranger powers.²* SoProudOfYou:²** When reunited with his children [[spoiler:Celestia and Luna]], Titan tells them as much.²** [[spoiler:Twilight Sparkle/Shining Spark to [[LiteralSplitPersonality Belle Amie]], just before merging with her.]]²* SpaceWhaleAesop: Don't write {{Hate Fic}}s or else Dark Conquest will come along to kill everyone, m'kay?²* SpitTake: Gilda does one with cider when Rainbow Dash tells her Fluttershy married someone else.²** Discord provides Pinkie with a glass of water just so she can drink and spit it out [[spoiler:when Castor reveals himself to actually be Discord and Luna's draconequus son and Leilani as just an illusion created by him]].²* StealthInsult: Rhymey's rhyming in this story is a form of magic that allows him to [[StupidityInducingAttack negatively affect his enemies' mental abilities]], while also serving as an extension of the Grand Ruler's power to erode intellects and personalities. [[spoiler:In other words, just being around him and listening to his rhyming makes you dumber.]] It's uncertain whether this was intended, but given how much Rhymey's VerbalTic gets criticized both in-universe and out, it's highly likely that it was.²* TheStinger: [[spoiler:After the second epilogue, someone decides to write a HateFic about ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'', inadvertently bringing Conquest back to life.]]²* StraightForTheCommander: Lightning's plan for taking on Dark Conquest's forces, under the assumption that they're a KeystoneArmy like their previous enemies. Unfortunately, AuthorityEqualsAsskicking is fully in effect for the bad guys.²* StrippedToTheBone:²** A Starfleet RedShirt gets eaten alive by zombified fairies, leaving only a skeleton.²** [[spoiler:Dark Conquest]] is reduced to bones by Lightning's Uniforce. [[spoiler:However, as the Uniforce is powered by hate, Conquest [[HealingFactor shrugs it off entirely]].]]²* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: [[spoiler:Through his experiments, Emil Kudos discovers that Space Ponies can unconsciously power up one trait under life-threatening conditions.]]²* StuffedIntoTheFridge: [[spoiler:Cookie Dough]], at the hands of Dark Conquest.²* SuperHeroOrigin: [[DeconReconSwitch Deconstructed and Reconstructed]]. ''Evolution of Magic'' details how the [=HuMane=] Six are working towards similar careers and futures of their Equestrian counterparts in a world much closer to RealLife. As explained by Legendbringer:²-->This is, actually a boon in my eyes as it give me more of a chance to explore the EQG over the maneverse. Cause, you see, the maneverse gals? They have already achieved their dreams and goals. Rarity is a buisness mare, Pinkie is baking, and Applejack is farming. The EQ gals? They're still in high school, they want to be where their pony selves are now.\²\²(Interestingly enough, that is an angle I have never seen a fic where the ponies meet their human selves tackle. And I know that his kind of subject is way too deep for the age group that the show is aimed for. If I want that kind of thinking, then I will go and watch a really good anime thank you very much)\²\²So, my question and one of the big hypothisis that this story is taking is...how do you become like the mane six in a world where your talent is not marked on your flank and in a 'real world'.\²\²How does one really become Applejack? How do you stay Pinkie in this world where it's easy to hate and become depressed? How do you become like Rarity when the world hears that you are a corperation and goes "YOU ARE THE DEVIL!!!!!" It's an idea I like to explore in this world.²* TakeThat: This fic as a whole is one to ''FanFic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic'' and to Mykan.²** [[invoked]] Dark Conquest apparently conquers the worlds of bad fanfiction and according to WordOfGod, [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/249531/fall-of-starfleet-rebirth-of-friendship#comment/8263102 he has conquered the universe]] ''Fanfic/TheEndOfEnds'' takes place in. There's also a few {{Red Shirt}}s named after the main characters from the fic, including the main OriginalCharacter, who proceed to get unceremoniously killed off within half a chapter of being introduced [[spoiler:with the exception of Beast Boy, who is actually Thorax in disguise]].²** [[spoiler:Rhymey's depiction in this story is one towards Mykan's beliefs that the girl (Terra, Kari, etc.) in a relationship is nothing more than a prize to be won by the guy ([[WesternAnimation/TeenTitans Beast Boy]], [[Anime/DigimonAdventure02 Davis]], etc.) and when the guy [[DidNotGetTheGirl doesn't get the girl]], he will become a villain. However, whereas Mykan tries ([[UnintentionallyUnsympathetic and fails]]) to make the guy a sympathetic villain as well as make the girl feel bad for driving the guy to villainy, Legendbringer [[{{Deconstruction}} points out just how unsympathetic and insane this type of character would be]]. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash point out how Rhymey treats Fluttershy like an object rather than a living being. Fluttershy does not at all feel sorry for Rhymey whatsoever and other characters, particularly Rainbow Dash and Raven, point out just how abusive Rhymey is. Rhymey eventually joins the leagues of Dark Conquest to try and take Fluttershy back by force.]]²** [[spoiler:One of the more infamous parts of ''Starfleet Magic'' was Princess Cadance having a miscarriage [[AuthorTract because the author hated the fact that Cadance was]] HappilyMarried. In this story, it is revealed that the Dark King was actually a version of Shining Armor that was DrivenToVillainy after he and Cadance lost their child.]]²** In "The War Ends with Light", Dark Conquest is reading Webcomic/CtrlAltDel, and he calls it one of the greatest works. [[DamnedByAFoolsPraise Knowing who Conquest is, this is definitely not meant to be a compliment from the author.]]²** ''Evolution of Friendship'' is one to Mykan's other works, particularly his ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'', ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', and ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' fics.²** There is a lighthearted jab at ComicBook/{{Starfire}}'s {{Stripperiffic}} costumes.²-->'''EQG Rarity:''' (sees a picture of Kory in a skimpy bathing suit) Um, maybe not let my models look like this.\²'''Donna Troy:''' (thinking) Darn it Kory.²* TeenPregnancy: EQG Ditzy had Dinky when she was still in her teens. Sunset helps Ditzy keep it a secret.²* TeleportationSickness: Trixie nearly vomits after getting teleported onto a prison planet.²* ThanatosGambit: Two of these are pulled in chapter 18.²** The first is [[spoiler:Krysta reading about the Flutter Ponies, whose true power is revealed through them [[HeroicSacrifice making a brave sacrifice]]. Krysta tests this on herself by sacrificing herself to draw Conquest's zombie fairies away from Lightning, [[DeathActivatedSuperpower and is proven right]], letting her [[NegateYourOwnSacrifice come back stronger immediately afterward]].]]²** The second is [[spoiler:Lightning tearing down the last pillar of Grand Ruler's power by fighting and dying against Dark Conquest. This one is subverted by Lightning using a golem to [[FakingTheDead fake his death]]; while Conquest wasn't fooled for long, it did succeed in tricking Grand Ruler as intended.]]²* ThroughTheEyesOfMadness: [[spoiler:The reveal of Grand Ruler actively manipulating the minds of his people indicate that much of Starfleet's experiences (in other words, most of ''Starfleet Magic'') were [[UnreliableNarrator distorted versions of the actual events]] planted into their minds. For instance, during the events near the end of ''Starfleet Magic I'', they believed Dementia, Repstallion, and Mysterious to be enslaving the Equestrians and fusing into a giant monster, when in reality they were actually defeated by the Equestrians and going to surrender, resulting in the trio being murdered in cold blood.]]²** There seems to be a similar event occurring in the ''Equestria Girls'' universe.²* ToBeLawfulOrGood: [[spoiler:The Elements of Harmony and most of Fillydelphia choosing "good" over "lawful" results in a major victory for United Equestria.]] Of course, since the law in this case is set by [[TheCaligula Grand Ruler]], [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight it's not exactly a hard decision]].²* TonightSomeoneDies: Stated at the end of the seventh chapter. The author Legendbringer notes IAlwaysWantedToSayThat.²** Sure enough, the eighth chapter [[spoiler:features Myte's death in front of his brother Dyno, Luna's Resistance and Lightning Dawn's team. [[TearJerker It's actually pretty saddening.]]]]²*** In fact, the titles for chapters 8, 11, 14, and 16 all but spell out who's going to die. [[spoiler:Each one refers to Myte, Buddy Rose, Artie Bristles and Rhymey Ward, respectively. However, this is subverted in the case of the last two, but only just.]]²* TookALevelInBadass: Dementia, Mysterious and Rep-Stallion show they've taken in a few levels after [[BackFromTheDead being resurrected]] when in Chapter 5, [[spoiler:they manage to defeat Lightning Dawn, Artie Bristles, Rhymey, Buddy Rose, Dyno and Myte with little to no injuries to themselves.]]²** Trixie. She enters the story as the lowly assistant (and implied to be sexual partner, according to author's notes) of Abra, a complete hack in the magic business. She immediately levels up by ditching him (with a lengthy TheReasonYouSuckSpeech [[spoiler:done through an illusion]]) and promptly outwits several dangerous opponents with misdirection and cunning before saving her family and some civilians. Later, she projects her image into every reflective surface in the entire city of Detrot (including but not limited to mirrors, window panes, and ''spoons'') to communicate with the population, and creates a full-scale illusion of Detrot several miles away from the original in order to stall the enemy. (Admittedly, the last feat [[HeroicRROD nearly lands her in a coma]] from the strain.²** Rainbow Dash herself has also taken in a few levels. [[spoiler:Such skills she's gained over time include creating after-images, the BareHandedBladeBlock and being able to destroy objects via vibration. All of which she demonstrates in a fight against Rhymey.]]²* TrojanPrisoner: Carrot Top volunteers to be used as one by the Umbra Circle, getting herself falsely accused of a crime by a KangarooCourt and then being sent to Starfleet's central prison. She then plants a talisman that lets the rest of them teleport in, while she herself goes around collecting testimonials from unfairly accused prisoners until she's rescued.²* UndeadChild: [[spoiler:Lightning is horrified to discover Krysta's son, Twink, has become this, courtesy of the Necromancer.]]²* UndeathAlwaysEnds: [[spoiler:The Flutterponies use their powers to destroy all the zombified fairies. Twink's spirit waves goodbye to Krysta before going to the afterlife]].²* UnderestimatingBadassery: Starfleet to the Equestrians and their enemies.²* UnfortunateNames:²** Sunset has to [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer assure Grey Son that the PE teacher before him, who was killed by Dai Shi, was indeed named]] "Cannon Fodder". She then muses that it's slightly better than the kid who wound up with the name ''Dead Meat'' (who, incidentally, is alive enough at that moment to protest that [[ComicallyMissingThePoint he got saddled with the family name "Meat"]]).²** The warden of Starfleet's central prison is named "Steel Balls". She threatens to lock anyone that makes fun of her name in solitary confinement.²* VagueAge: Averted with Twilight, whose tombstone lists her as aged 20 at the time of death. By extension, the rest of the Mane Six should be roughly around that age, but we don't get the specifics.²* VerbThis: [[spoiler:During his battle with Rhymey in Chapter 16, Lightning tells him to "BELIEVE THIS!"]]²* VillainBall: Despite generally being a competent, intelligent villain, Dark Conquest is ultimately guilty of holding the ball for ''the entire story''. He insists on feeding off the hatred of Equestria's inhabitants rather than simply destroying their key players when he has the chance, and unsurprisingly, it eventually comes back to bite him big time.²* VillainHasAPoint: Dark Conquest may be an asshole of the highest caliber and then some, but he does bring up some valid points about Starfleet. For instance, he points out that he wouldn't have a pissed-off army backing him up if it weren't for Starfleet's tendency to arrest people on a whim.²* VoiceOfTheResistance: Vinyl Scratch and Octavia's radio show give an unbiased report on the war, often condemning Grand Ruler's actions along the way, while trying to keep public morale high despite Grand Ruler's attempts to silence dissent and keep the Equestrians under his heel.²* WellIntentionedExtremist: It's revealed that the magic drain on the Equestrian population was caused by [[spoiler:Moondancer attempting to bring Twilight BackFromTheDead. Given the existence of Belle and Shining, she may have succeeded - just not in the way she planned.]]²* WhamEpisode:²** In Chapter 7, [[spoiler:Fratello attacks the Crystal Empire and fights his sister Cadance. Cadance not only triumphs and survives, she even purges Fratello of his hate and free him from the armor's influence.]]²** Chapter 8 serves as a massive one [[spoiler:with Raven killing Myte via [[NeckSnap snapping his neck]] and Dyno subsequently delivering a [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech reason-you-all-suck speech]] to his teammates before quitting Starfleet.]]²** Chapter 14 reveals that [[spoiler:Dr. Emil Kudos and Raven were working for Grand Ruler all along in ''Starfleet Magic'', with the latter being... ''[[MindRape coerced]]'' into it. Additionally, Kudos is now working for Dark Conquest]].²** With the title "Expose of the Past", Chapter 15 naturally throws around [[TheReveal a lot of revelations]].²** Chapter 16 reveals [[spoiler:the identities of the Dark King and his minions.]]²** Chapter 17 gives off several reveals. Such reveals include: [[spoiler:Titan officially being confirmed as an Equestrian (and Celestia and Luna's father, to boot), Lightning Dawn's [[SuperMode enticorn form]] being a [[SuperpoweredEvilSide corruption of an ascended Alicorn form powered by hatred and rage,]] and Belle Amie and Shining Spark being revealed to be each other's missing half (albeit the two of them do not know this).]]²%%** Chapters 19 and 20²** Chapter 21. Four words: [[spoiler:Twilight Sparkle is back.]]²* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Abra Kadabra hasn't been seen since Trixie ditched him. Also, we haven't seen Fratello since Cadance purified him. [[TheBusCameBack Fratello reappears in Chapter 13]] and becomes a recurring character from that point onward, and Abra shows up in Chapter 15.²* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Two, in fact. One set after the story to show the cast going about their lives after the defeat of Conquest, and another set eighteen years after that, featuring the new generation.²* WorldHealingWave: [[spoiler:After defeating Conquest and the Necromancer, the Elements of Harmony and the Elements of Fate combine their power to restore Equestria to the way it was before Grand Ruler came along.]]²* WrongGenreSavvy: A couple of the Starfleet members think that they are in a standard "season" of ''[[FanFic/MyBravePonyStarfleetMagic Starfleet Magic]]'' when really it becomes obvious from the start that they are in a deconstruction of one. Grand Ruler, in particular, still seems to think that he's the BigGood and is still protected by ProtagonistCenteredMorality.²* YouAreNotAlone: Madilyn says this while [[BigDamnHeroes saving Sunset from Darkonda]].²* YouCannotKillAnIdea: [[spoiler:Though Grand Ruler succeeds in assassinating Twilight Sparkle through Raven and Lightning Dawn, her discovery of Celesto's deception is carried on by the rest of the Mane Six and the Umbra Circle, who eventually unveil it to all of Equestria.]]²* YouMonster:²** Rainbow Dash calls Dark Conquest this when the heroes learn that [[spoiler:Cookie Dough's wife and son had been killed]].²** Celesto is called this by Celestia when she finds out that [[spoiler:he used an illusion that resembled her [[UsefulNotes/VictimBlaming to tell Lightning it was Twilight's own fault she died in order to turn him into a weapon]]]].²** [[spoiler:Prior to being brainwashed, Raven says this of Dr. Emil Kudos when he tells her that he held a baby unicorn under a faucet in order to see how long it could hold its breath.]]²* YoureInsane: In Chapter 5, the Elements of Harmony's reaction to Lightning Dawn refusing to get aid and help the innocents caught up in Dark Conquest's army attacking.²* ZombieApocalypse: [[spoiler:With the exception of Krysta, every fairy is now a ravenous zombie. Inverted in that the apocalypse caused the zombies instead of the other way around.]]²[[/folder]]²----²--> ''This is an imaginary story. Aren't they all?''

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